The present invention relates to a medium containing a computer peripheral device maintenance guide program for displaying guidance information indicative of a procedure of maintenance operation of a computer peripheral device in a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, a computer peripheral device maintenance guide device, and a computer peripheral device maintenance guide method.
To use a computer peripheral device such as a printer, various install operations must be performed. For example, in case of a printer, connection of an interface cable, attachment of ink or toner cartridge, installation of printer driver, and the like, are performed as install operations. Among these operations, the printer driver or the like can be automatically installed by using a predetermined install program, however, the other operations such as attachment of cartridge must be manually performed in accordance with predetermined procedures.
Conventionally, such install operations are described in a book-style manual came with the printer. A user performs the operations by referring to the manual arbitrarily. However, with the recent widespread use of computers, general users without basic knowledge perform these install operations. For this reason, to provide more practical install operation procedures, a recording medium such as a CD-ROM for displaying install operation procedures with moving pictures and/or photographs is provided with the printer. The recording medium contains a setup guide program. When the setup guide program is executed on the computer, install operation procedures with moving pictures and/or photographs are displayed as described above. The user conducts the install operations while watching the display images.
The above-described conventional art has the following problem.
It is apparent that the user can easily understand the install operations if install operation procedures are displayed with moving pictures and/or photographs. However, in a case where the user must sequentially conduct plural steps of install operation while judging the status of a computer peripheral device, it was difficult for the user to determine whether or not he/she can perform the next operation step. For example, in a case where predetermined initialization processing must be performed after a computer peripheral device has been powered and the next operation step must be performed after the completion of the initialization processing, the user does not know in what status he/she can determine the completion of the initialization. In this case, the user cannot determine whether or not the next operation step can be performed.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem, and has its object to provide a medium containing a computer peripheral device maintenance guide program for displaying user-friendly guidance information for smooth maintenance operation in case of maintenance operation while judging the status of the computer peripheral device, a computer peripheral device maintenance device, and a computer peripheral device maintenance guide method for the computer peripheral device.
To attain the foregoing object, the present invention according to claim 1 provides a medium containing a computer-executable computer peripheral device maintenance guide program to display guidance information indicative of a procedure of a maintenance operation of a computer peripheral device, in a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, the program comprising: a status change detection step of detecting a status change of the computer peripheral device; a progress acquisition step of acquiring progress of the maintenance operation, based on the status change of the computer peripheral device detected at the status change detection step; and a guidance display step of obtaining corresponding guidance information from a series of guidance information, provided corresponding to the progress of the maintenance operation in advance, based on the progress acquired at the progress acquisition step, and producing a screen display of the guidance information on the computer.
In the present invention according to claim 1 having the above construction, when a computer peripheral device maintenance operation is performed, the maintenance guide program is executed on a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, and a user sequentially performs a series of maintenance operations in accordance with displayed guidance information. In the execution of the maintenance operation, if the status of the computer peripheral device changes, the maintenance guide program detects the status change at the status change detection step. Then at the progress acquisition step, the program obtains the progress of the maintenance operation based on the actually detected status change. At the guidance display step, the program obtains guidance information from a series of guidance information, previously set in correspondence to the progress of the maintenance operation, based on the progress, and then displays the guidance information.
According to the conventional art, the user performs maintenance operations while judging the status of the computer peripheral device. On the other hand, according to the present invention, guidance information corresponding to the progress of the maintenance operation is displayed, therefore, the user simply performs the maintenance operations sequentially in accordance with displayed images. For example, in a case where the computer peripheral device starts initial operation after the power of the device is turned on, and the maintenance operation is started after the completion of initial operation, the completion of initial operation can be detected and guidance information for the maintenance operation to be performed thereafter can be displayed by the maintenance guide program. In this case, it is not necessary for the user to determine whether or not the initial operation of the computer peripheral device has been completed. The user can simply perform the maintenance operation in accordance with the displayed guidance information. This is helpful for the user.
The maintenance operation here means an operation manually performed by the user. The maintenance operation includes various operations such as an install operation into the computer, maintenance work like exchange of part, and an operation to remove an error. For example, in a case where the present invention is applied to a printer as a computer peripheral device, guidance on printer install operation may be displayed, or guidance on operation procedure for removal of error such as paper jam may be displayed.
The medium in which the maintenance guide program is recorded may be a magnetic recording medium or a magneto-optic recording medium, or further, may be any recording medium to be developed in the future. Further, duplicates including primary and secondary duplicates can be considered to be equivalent to the above recording medium. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where the maintenance guide program is supplied via a communication line. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where the maintenance guide program is written into a semiconductor chip.
Further, the idea of the invention does not change at all when the invention is realized by partially software and partially hardware. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where a part of the invention is stored in a recording medium and it is arbitrarily read in accordance with necessity.
In this manner, to realize the present invention by software, hardware and an operating system may be utilized, or the present invention may be realized separately from the hardware and operating system. For example, the processing to detect the status change may be performed by reading a predetermined function in the operating system, or may be performed by inputting such function from the hardware. Even in a case where the invention may be realized via the operating system, it can be understood that in the progress of recording the program into the medium to be delivered to users, the present invention can be implemented only by the program.
Further, in a case where the present invention is implemented by software, the invention is realized as a medium containing a program, further, the present invention is realized as the program itself. Accordingly, the program itself is included in the present invention.
In a case where the guidance information is displayed, the concrete guidance information may be displayed in various forms such as a message explaining the procedure of the maintenance operation or the message with drawings and photographs. Using drawings and photographs can realize more practical maintenance operation guidance. For this reason, the present invention according to claim 2 provides the medium containing the computer-executable computer peripheral device maintenance guide program according to claim 1, wherein guidance information as a moving picture is displayed.
In the present invention according to claim 2 having the above construction, the guidance information on the maintenance operation is displayed as a moving picture. Note that the moving picture may utilize a video image or time-sequential display of plural still images. The concrete format of the moving picture is not particularly limited. Further, if the computer has an audio output mechanism, audio guidance may be outputted in correspondence with the display of the moving picture of the guidance information.
The content of the guidance information to be displayed is not limited to any particular content as long as it practically relates to the maintenance operation. As an example, the present invention according to claim 3 provides the medium containing the computer-executable computer peripheral device maintenance guide program according to any one of claim 1 and 2, wherein at the guidance display step, guidance information relating to the progress of the maintenance operation is displayed.
In the present invention according to claim 3 having the above construction, the guidance information relating to the progress of the maintenance operation is displayed, which helps the user. That is, as the guidance information is displayed in correspondence with the progress of the maintenance work, the user who does not judge by himself/herself the status of the computer peripheral device, but the user can easily perform the maintenance operation based on the displayed information as a guideline of judgment. More particularly, a necessary period for the maintenance operation may be displayed, or the progress of the maintenance operation may be displayed in the form of a status bar.
When the maintenance operation of the computer peripheral device has been completed, it may be checked whether or not the computer peripheral device normally operates. Accordingly, the present invention according to claim 4 provides the medium containing the computer-executable computer peripheral device maintenance guide program according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein at the guidance display step, guidance information relating to a procedure of operation check on the computer peripheral device is displayed.
That is, considering the operation check as a part of the maintenance operation, guidance information relating to the checking operation procedure is displayed. Further, the operation check guidance information may has a wide variety of contents; for example, the guidance information may indicate an operation check procedure, or may indicate that the operation check is being performed.
If it is determined as a result of operation check of the computer peripheral device in this manner that the device has an error in its operation, the factor of the error must be removed. For this purpose, the present invention according to claim 5 provides the medium containing the computer-executable computer peripheral device maintenance guide program according to claim 4, wherein at the guidance display step, guidance information to remove an error in an operation of the computer peripheral device in the operation check is displayed.
In the present invention according to claim 5 having the above construction, if it is determined as a result of operation check of the computer peripheral device that there is an error in the operation, guidance information to remove the error is displayed. The guidance information may be a method to actually handle the error, or if the computer peripheral device is self-recoverable from an error, may indicate that self recovery is being performed.
In this manner, the method for displaying guidance information indicative of the procedure of maintenance operation of the computer peripheral device, comprising determining the progress of the maintenance operation based on the change of status of the computer peripheral device, and displaying the guidance information in correspondence with the progress, can be realized in a computer having a material substance. In this meaning, it can be easily understood that the present invention is applicable to a device having a material substance including a computer. Accordingly, the present invention according to claim 6 provides a computer peripheral device maintenance guide device to display guidance information indicative of a procedure of a maintenance operation of a computer peripheral device, in a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, the device comprising: a status change detection unit for detecting a status change of the computer peripheral device; a progress acquisition unit for acquiring progress of the maintenance operation, based on the status change of the computer peripheral device detected by the status change detection unit; and a guidance display unit for obtaining corresponding guidance information from a series of guidance information, provided corresponding to the progress of the maintenance operation in advance, based on the progress acquired by the progress acquisition unit, and producing a screen display of the guidance information on the computer.
That is, the present invention can be realized as a device having a material substance controlled by a computer. Such computer peripheral device maintenance guide device may be implemented as a single device, or may be incorporated into another device and implemented with another method. Thus, the idea of the invention is not limited to the computer peripheral device maintenance guide device having the above construction but includes various aspects and may be arbitrarily changed.
Further, in a medium in which the computer peripheral device maintenance guide program is recorded, to proceed with processing in accordance with such control by the program, the present invention lies at the root of the process procedure. Accordingly, it can be easily understood that the present invention can be applied to a method. The present invention according to claim 7 provides a computer peripheral device maintenance guide method to display guidance information indicative of a procedure of a maintenance operation for a computer peripheral device, in a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, the method comprising: a status change detection step of detecting a status change of the computer peripheral device; a progress acquisition step of acquiring progress of the maintenance operation, based on the status change of the computer peripheral device detected at the status change detection step; and a guidance display step of obtaining corresponding guidance information from a series of guidance information, provided corresponding to the progress of the maintenance operation in advance, based on the progress acquired at the progress acquisition step, and producing a screen display of the guidance information on the computer.
That is, the present invention is applicable not only to a medium having a material substance but also to a method.